no ifs, ands or buts, any room to negotiate, on that specific aspect of the fiscal cliff. >> with respect to the tax rates, i want to emphasize, i am open to new ideas. i'm not going to slam the door in their face. i want to hear -- i want to hear ideas from everybody. >> that's not a no. here is the treasury secretary timothy geithner. the top negotiator for barack obama. >> there's no agreement that doesn't involve the rates going up on the top 2%. only the top 2%. >> not necessarily going up to the clinton era rates. just going up. today at a press conference at the capital, house speaker john boehner got a question about this. listen carefully to how he responded or didn't respond. >> you did speak with the president earlier this week. can you characterize that call? if he called, did he have any kind of counter-offer? and also we understand that he just is making clear that it's got to be increasing rates for the wealthy or no deal. are you willing to give a little bit? maybe just not all the way to 39.6? >> the phone call was pleasant, but just more of the same. the conversations th